Poetic visions at the heart of the city, Signed by the artist

The lyrical and melancholy works of Robert Montgomery (b. Chapelhall, 1972; lives and works in London) portray the raw wounds of the capitalist society. His gaze is informed by profound skepticism about modernity and its blind progress, but he also believes in the individual’s ability to offer resistance. His texts render his reflections visible and trace the memories of a place and its people. Montgomery installs his bold and pithy text pieces—many of them are bathed in a radiant cold neon light—in the urban landscape: on Berlin’s Tempelhof airfield, in the garden of the Louvre, as posters on rail bridges or billboards on busy intersections in the world’s metropolises. White block letters on black grounds proclaim poetic messages that turn out to be critical statements about society and global politics. His critique of capitalism takes the viewer by surprise and hits home; it is activist performance art for the contemporary urban scene—echoes of Fluxus and the art of the Situationists are very much intended. The book offers a richly illustrated overview of Montgomery’s oeuvre; essays by Henrik Wobbe, Barbara Polla, Manuel Wischnewski, and others illuminate aspects of his art.